The addition of James White to the stable of running backs in New England says a lot about the future of Stevan Ridley. Ridley has fumbled eight times over the last two years and is in the last year of his rookie deal. He—or perhaps Shane Vereern—may not be back in 2015.

White only fumbled twice during his 700+ carries in Wisconsin and was a decisive cutter that rarely was stopped in the backfield. He isn’t a breakaway back—he has 4.5 speed—but is tough to tackle 1-on-1. You won’t see White leave many yards on the table.

At 5’9″ and 204 pounds, White isn’t much of a pile-pusher. He doesn’t have a lot of natural leverage with short arms and small hands, so he may struggle a bit in pass protection. That said, he impressed scouts—including our own Mike Loyko—at the 2014 Senior Bowl with that very skill.

James White had himself a pretty good day, especially in pass protection. He caught my eye a few times with the way he was able to pick up blitzing linebackers and move his feet on their counter moves. White weighed in at a bulked up 205 pounds and up close he’s much thicker than I had envisioned. His lower-half especially is bulked up and ripped up.

White has also seen a bit of time returning kickoffs, so he may be able to contribute there as well.

I like the pick up of james white. I believe he will fit in well in the patriots system and if he keeps improveing he can maybe even take the role of starting rb. With Ridleys fumbling problems and with Blount with the Pittsburgh Steelers they really have no other reason not to start him. Even if he is not the starter he will split the carries with steven ridley.

Some in bill we trust robots back up anything he does regardless of consequences. Even with his extremely impressive history of 2nd and third rd. Busts. That’s the backbone of winning teams. And its not like these picks being busts fooled everybody. They were projected sixth seventh rd picks he was drafting in rd 2. He was trying to outthink everybody and show how smart he is but he ends up being wrong every time and looking like an ass instead. He is a great x’s o’s coach but a terrible gm. Kraft should have removed his power of player personnel long ago. This draft is the worse. Another early rd pick on a long shot backup qb. Stork who was a rd7 at best in the fourth. Worse yet he drafted him b4 martavis Bryant a more athletic much more fluid route runner than Stephen hill. Bryant instantly becomes our best wr. The corners and safety’s around the league are longer faster stronger than ever and our wr’s r shorter slower weaker than ever. We have no wr’s who can match up physically. Edelman is a #3 And slot only on any respectable offense. Having the best qb ever has bailed bill out. What’s gonna happen when he doesn’t have that luxury. Have u robots noticed every young qb that’s succeeding has a talented team around him. I mean seriously how many qbs would succeed with that edelman as his #1. Not manning not Montana not room whose the ceiling of our backup waste of a pick. Brady is a luxury bill will never have again. I’m not saying we need Calvin johnson but there should at least be quality talent around Brady who can match up physically with defenses and win on third and ten when the defenses put the squeeze on. Our third and long is terrible because we lack awr who can match up physically and win. Dobson is a #2 at our luckiest who has very small hands and struggled with NFL dB’s. And its going to get worse, this was the richest draft ever for fast long strong talented dB’s. Lafell is a castoff. Panthers had no wr’s on roster,lafell was cheap and still they made no attempt to resign him. They knew they needed an upgrade to compete. I like the first rd pick if he stays healthy over a we in rd one. But we need a we like Lee,Bryant,Allen,Matthews, or Latimer. You r lying to yourself if u think Dobson is as good as either of them. BTW when u bust that many picks u need to take a chance on a lyerla, or seantrel henderson. James white another ufa in the fourth. Not to mention a poor mans Shane verreen who if healthy is special. We need a true complete no. 1 to finish a playoff run. Just like we need an explosive passrusher although the injury risk we may not b able to afford because of all the previous busts.

You want the Pats to sign Lyelra………………..He is a pice of human waste and either your an ignorant moron or your also human waste…………………A man who said the school shooting in Conn was a lie and a conspiracy is your football hero……………..I hope you don’t have kids..

For the 7th pick in the 1996 NFL draft, the New England Patriots select, from Ohio State…
( Come on, yes, Eddie George!!!, you can do it, Tuna… please ) Terry Glenn, Wide receiver. (Oh, no-o-o-o) and on that fateful day along with passing on Eddie it turned out to be the Superbowl that got away as well. Sorry LeGarrette but I don’t think we’ll ever see another 240 lb running back come our way ever again.

I’m not sure I agree with the first round pick, mainly because our luck with injuries lately. Our o-line did need some help though. Brady went down way to often last year. Manning hardly ever went down. I would have liked a tight end by now,but there’s still talent left. I think BB will give our rookie receivers more time before giving up hope on them. Mainly surprised they didn’t take a big DT like most predicted. Don’t give up hope yet.

Randy Moss was once kicked off of a football team, and had his fair shake of trouble with the law. Get the kid some help. If any team can turn the kid around it’s the Patriots. Or I guess we could get someone like Zach Sudfield, who doesn’t make it through the season with us. At least he would be a low risk high reward option.

Lyerla said some things regarding the Sandy Hook school shooting about it being a conspiracy or fake or whatever. If there is one thing that would keep him off the Pats board, this would be it, not so much the other off-field trouble, which in itself is plenty enough too.

So far it’s been a mediocre draft. With all the hype I expected at least one spectacular addition. Did not happen (yet). The small man syndrome was evident again in their choice of RB. After Blount’s impressive successes last season you’d have thought they would have learned something.

Hey, the draft isn’t everything. We have two wide receivers in the stables, the diminutive Reggie Dunn with 4.2+ speed and Josh Boyce with 4.3+ speed. Does this mean we can expect to see them on the field in August? Uh, no, but anything’s possible.

I think Fleming will be a good addition. According to his video profile he’s underrated. He moves pretty well for a big man, and with his aeronautics degree he can double as a flightline mechanic for the team plane.